Harley loves Ilya. He gives her life purpose and sets her passion ablaze. So, when he asks her to prove her love by slitting her wrists, she obliges with only mild hesitation, perhaps because of her other all-consuming love: heroin.

For an hour and a half, we watch a vacant young woman batter herself with two ruinous addictions: heroin, and her love for a despicable fellow vagrant Remarkably, though, it all becomes kind of compelling -- a testament to the film's aggressive vitality.